Musical instrument for playing bugle calls



K July 30, 1940. z sw so 2,209,427

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT FOR PLAYING BUGLE CALLS Filed Aug. 3, 1939 Patented July 30, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT FOR PLAYING BUGLE CALLS 1 Claim.

This invention relates for playing bugle calls.

Bugle calls have been played on bugles, trumpets, cornets and other wind instruments of the valveless, brass horn family, the player depending on his embouchure to produce the desired tones. All such instruments permit a great variety of tones to be produced, the variations in pitch being dependent on the tension of the players lips within the cup-shaped mouthpiece of the instrument. To play bugle calls, or in fact any tones, on such instruments requires prolonged training and skill on the part of the player.

The object of this invention is to provide an instrument, simple in construction, capable of producing only a limited number of predetermined tones, preferably four tones of the harmonic scale, which enable the player to produce all tones regularly used in playing bugle calls. The invention enables a novice to play the instrument to produce pro-selected tones by blowing into the mouthpiece while controlling by the fingers a limited number of openings in the body of the instrument. No change in the manner of blowing into the instrument is required in order to produce different tones.

Regulation bugle calls may be played on the instrument of my invention, which costs but a fraction of the cost of instruments heretofore used for this purpose. In addition to this saving is the advantage that juvenile groups can learn to play bugle calls quickly and easily.

Another feature of the invention is the construction whereby the desired range of tones may be produced by an instrument of minimum length, whereby the valve openings may be located closely together in a manner convenient for the player.

Another advantage is the relative location of the mouthpiece and the tone holes, whereby the playing of the instrument is made convenient.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a musical instrument embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical, longitudinal sectional view, taken in the plane of the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

In the preferred embodiment of my invention, shown in the drawing, the instrument comprises an elongated, tapered body Ill and a fixed tone producing mouthpiece II, which for convenience in manufacturing are made separately and are connected together in any suitable manner. The end 12 of the body I is shown closed, although an end opening of limited diameter would not materially affect the operation of the device. A

to musical instruments holes are closed, the next lowest bell 43 may be integral with or mounted on the body ID to make the instrument simulate a horn type instrument.

The mouthpiece H is of the fipple type, having an air inlet I4, and in its top surface between 5 the inlet end and body I0 is an orifice I5. The beveled edge I6 is located in the air passageway near the inner end of the inlet M.

The tone chamber I1 formed in the body l0 and mouthpiece II is cylindrical, relatively rapid- 10 ly decreasing in diameter from the portion l8 adjacent the fixed tone producing mouthpiece to the opposite end l2 of the body I0. In the upper surface of the body ID are three regularly spaced and positioned tone holes I9, 20 and 2|, communicating with the tone chamber ll. Each tone hole has a cylindrical wall surrounding it of a predetermined height, formed on the exterior of the body In, as indicated at 22, 23, 24, respectively. These Walls are designed to be of a height go sufiicient to lengthen the air passageways between the tone holes and between the mouthpiece and tone holes, without lengthening the tone chamber. In other words the height of the regularly spaced cylindrical walls is, and 2| may vary greatly, depending upon the tone interval to be produced by controlling adjacent tone holes, for an abruptly tapering tone chamber of fixed length. By this arrangement, I am able to produce, for example, the tones D, G, B and D, in a G bugle, for playing tones regularly used in bugle calls, in a short instrument having the tone holes located near each other in a manner convenient to the player and more closely together than is possible without predetermining the 5 height of the passageway-extending beads or walls. The sizes of the tone chamber, the tone holes and their location in the body I U, as well as the length of the air passages between them and between the holes and the mouthpiece are correlated to produce certain predetermined tones, and they may be varied, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, to produce different tones, but the instrument shown is proportioned and designed to produce the four tones of the harmonic scale regularly used in playing bugle calls, the lowest tone being produced by blowing into the instrument when all the tone when the tone hole 2| is opened, etc.

So far as I am aware, I am the first to produce a musical instrument having an elongated, tapered body, closed or substantially closed at one end, having a mouthpiece at the end remote from the closed end, and tone holes located in the top surface of the body, whereby when the instrument is held between the lips of the player, with the surface 25 of the mouthpiece facing upwardly, the tone holes I9, 20 and 2! in the body in will be at the top of the instrument, convenient to be covered by the fingers of the player. Also, it has never been possible, heretofore, to play on a wind instrument certain preselected tones merely by blowing into the instrument while controlling by the fingers tone holes in the body.

Changes may be made in details of construction without departing from the scope of my invention.

I claim:

A musical instrument of the wood wind type for blowing bugle calls having a fipple type mouthpiece and a chambered body tapered abruptly to a closed outer end, said body providing with the tone producing mouthpiece a relatively short substantially closed tone chamber having three normally and regularly spaced tone holes through the upper wall thereof, said holes being arranged to be closed by three adjacent fingers of the player's hand whereby the lowest or fundamental note of the instrument is produced when all the tone holes are closed, and a cylindrical wall of materially greater height than the thickness of the upper wall of said chamber surrounding each of said tone holes above said chamber wall, the height of each of said cylindrical walls and tone hole air passageway formed thereby above said chamber wall being proportional to the area of the chamber at the point of communication therewith whereby the length of the air passageway between the upper ends of tone holes and between the tone producing mouthpiece and tone holes for playing the harmonic scale regularly used in blowing bugle calls, is produced without varying the linear distance between the tone holes or the length of the body of the tone chamber.

ZIEGNER SWANSON. 

